James Taylor among medal honorees

WASHINGTON — For singer-songwriter James Taylor, Wednesday at the White House was "pretty much the peak" of a long and successful career, right down to the moment that the Marine band played "Your Smiling Face."

The Boston-born, Carolina-raised crooner whose hits date back four decades was among the 20 performers and intellectuals awarded the National Medal of Arts or the National Humanities Medal at the White House.

The icing on the cake for the 62-year-old baby-boom icon? He had helped elect the president who slipped the heavy prize over his head on a royal-purple rope.

Taylor shared the honors with the likes of musicians Quincy Jones and Sonny Rollins, and authors Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth.

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"One of the great joys of being president," Obama told the gathering, "is getting a chance to pay tribute to the artists and authors, the poets and performers, who have touched our hearts and opened our minds — or, in the case of Quincy Jones and James Taylor, set the mood." That last tease prompted laughter.

When he learned of the award, Taylor said, he scrapped a concert date in Des Moines and flew straight to Washington from a show in Omaha.

Taylor backed Obama's candidacy in 2008, performing five free concerts in North Carolina to whip up support for his campaign.

Taylor also took part in an unofficial tradition of visiting dignitaries, descending a staircase to the room below the White House press briefing room to scrawl a note on one of the walls. His reads, "Got my medal, feel so proud, James 'fire+rain' Taylor."